Chuck Yeager, the most famous test pilot of his generation, who was the first to break the sound barrier and, thanks to Tom Wolfe, came to personify the death-defying aviator who possessed the . The resulting burns to his face required extensive and agonizing medical care. Chuck Yeager's death was announced on Twitter on Monday night by his second wife Victoria Yeager was the son of farmers from West Virginia and he became one of the world's finest fighter. He was also a key supporter of the Marshall University's Society of Yeager Scholars, which was named in his honor. He was also a consultant on several Yeager-themed video games. But he joined a flight program for enlisted men in July 1942, figuring it would get him out of kitchen detail and guard duty. Flying Magazine ranked Yeager number 5 on its 2013 list of The 51 Heroes of Aviation; for many years, he was the highest-ranked living person on the list. That's what you're taught to do.". Renowned test pilot Chuck Yeager dies > Spangdahlem Air Base > News But it is there, on the record and in my memory". [6], Yeager's participation in the test pilot training program for NASA included controversial behavior. It wasnt a matter of not having airplanes that would fly at speeds like this. Yeager enlisted in the Army Air Corps after graduating from high school in 1941. He married Glennis Dickhouse of Oroville, California, on Feb. 26, 1945. The pain took his breath away. This was the sound barrier, which no aviator had crossed and lived to tell the tale. In 2000, Yeager met actress Victoria Scott D'Angelo on a hiking trail in Nevada County. Chuck Yeager, first person to break sound barrier, dead at 97 Ridley sawed 10 inches off a broomstick and wedged it in the lock, so that Yeager would be able to operate it with his left hand. The couple have four children. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you that my life love General Chuck Yeager passed just before 9pm ET. After the war, Yeager became a test pilot and flew many types of aircraft, including experimental rocket-powered aircraft for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager prepares to board an F-15D Eagle from the 65th Aggressor Squadron at . In his autobiography, Yeager wrote that he knew the lake bed was unsuitable for landings after recent rains, but Armstrong insisted on flying out anyway. The couple prospered because of Yeager's best-selling autobiography, speaking engagements, and commercial ventures. His last supersonic flight, in 2012 commemorated the 65th anniversary of his breaking of the sound barrier. Yeager nicknamed the plane "Glamourous Glennis" after his wife. His life was famously portrayed in Tom Wolfes 1979 book The Right Stuff which was later adapted into an Oscar-winning movie chronicling the postwar research in high-speed aircraft that led to NASAs Project Mercury. [119], Yeager appeared in a Texas advertisement for George H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign. An incredible life well lived, America's greatest Pilot, & a legacy of strength, adventure, & patriotism will be remembered forever.". He returned to combat during the Vietnam War, flying several missions a month in twin-engine B-57 Canberras making bombing and strafing runs over South Vietnam. In April 1962, Yeager made his only flight with Neil Armstrong. "It is w/ profound sorrow, I must tell you. (AP Photo/Douglas C . About. He was 97. President Harry S. Truman awarded him the Collier air trophy in December 1948 for his breaking the sound barrier. Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer was Electronic Art's top-selling game for 1987. It wasnt a matter of not having airplanes that would fly at speeds like this. Chuck Yeager - Wikipedia National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Air Materiel Command Flight Performance School, Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer 2.0, The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, South Korean Order of National Security Merit, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation, "Chuck Yeager, Test Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier, Is Dead at 97", "Four-Year-Old Boy Kills Baby Sister with Gun", https://archive.org/details/yeagerautobiogra00yeag/page/6, "Jeana Yeager Was Not Just Along for the Ride", "Chuck Yeager downs five becomes an 'Ace in a Day', "Escape and Evasion Case File for Flight Officer Charles (Chuck) E. Yeager", "The Story of Chuck Yeager, the Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier", "Chuck Yeager: Booming And Zooming (Part 1)", "WWII flying ace Chuck Yeager in extraordinary attack on 'nasty' and 'arrogant' British people", "Getting schooled with the Air Force's elite test pilots", "New U.S. [52] For this feat, Yeager was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) in 1954. By the time he was 6, Chuck was shooting squirrels and rabbits and skinning them for family dinners, reveling in a country boys life. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine called his death "a tremendous loss to our nation.". Yeagers pioneering and innovative spirit advanced Americas abilities in the sky and set our nations dreams soaring into the jet age and the space age. Ive flown 341 types of military planes in every country in the world and logged about 18,000 hours, he said in an interview in the January 2009 issue of Mens Journal. Chuck Yeager, first person to break sound barrier, dead at 97 Gen. Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the "right stuff" when in 1947 he became the first person. Chuck Yeager, 1st to break sound barrier, dies at 97 - WRDW The British test pilot Geoffrey de Havilland had died 13 months earlier, when, close to the sound barrier, his DH108 jet disintegrated over the Thames. [24] Yeager said both pilots bailed out. American pilot who was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound. AP He was 97. [117] Glennis Yeager died of ovarian cancer in 1990. He possessed a natural coordination and aptitude for understanding an airplanes mechanical system along with coolness under pressure. But Yeager was more than a pilot: In several test flights before breaking the sound barrier, he studied his machine, analyzing the way it handled as it went faster and faster. News of the then-astounding accomplishment was kept from the public until June 1948 but that didnt matter to Yeager. [25][26], In his 1986 memoirs, Yeager recalled with disgust that "atrocities were committed by both sides", and said he went on a mission with orders from the Eighth Air Force to "strafe anything that moved". He was 97. In an age of media-made heroes, he is the real deal, Edwards Air Force Base historian Jim Young said in August 2006 at the unveiling of a bronze statue of Yeager. On Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager, then a 24-year-old captain, pushed an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane past 660 mph to break the sound barrier, at the time a daunting aviation milestone . During his stay with the Maquis, Yeager assisted the guerrillas in duties that did not involve direct combat; he helped construct bombs for the group, a skill that he had learned from his father. She died of ovarian cancer in December 1990. But there were no news broadcasts that day, no newspaper headlines. Born in 1924, she married Chuck when she was just 21. In this Sept. 4, 1985, file photo, Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1947, poses at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., in front of the rocket-powered Bell X-IE plane that he . He was 97. The legend grew, culminating with secular canonisation in Tom Wolfes book The Right Stuff (1979), a romance on the birth of the US space programme, on Yeager himself, and even on Panchos (and its foul-mouthed female proprietor, Florence Pancho Barnes). Brig. He was 97. Just over a year ago, December 7, 2020, an aviation icon, U.S. Air Force Brig. Chuck Yeager, a World War II fighter pilot, the first person to break the sound barrier and one of the subjects of Philip Kaufman 's The Right Stuff has died. From his early years as a fighter ace in World War II to the last time he broke the sound barrier in 2012 - at the age of 89 - Chuck Yeager became the most decorated US pilot ever. 1 of 2. 5. Master Sgt. He commanded a fighter wing during the Vietnam War while holding the rank of colonel and flew 127 missions, mainly piloting Martin B-57 light bombers in attacking enemy troops and their supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The family later moved to Hamlin, the county seat. Chuck Yeager Dies At Age Of 97 - KXL Yeager's most notable achievement was piloting the X-1 experimental rocket plane, in which he became the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947, shortly after the founding of the U.S. Air Force as a separate service. Yeager became the first person to break the . He became familiar to a younger generation 36 years later when the actor Sam Shepard portrayed him in the movie, "The Right Stuff," based on the Tom Wolfe book. Escaping via resistance networks to Spain, he was back in England by May, and resumed flying. Away from The Right Stuff, some critics charged that the vastly experienced Yeager had simply ignored advice about the complexities of the new jet. The pair started dating shortly thereafter, and married in August 2003. [77] Sam Shepard portrayed Yeager in the film, which chronicles in part his famous 1947 record-breaking flight. Yeager shot down 13 German planes on 64 missions during World War II, including five on a single mission. He passed away on December 7, Pearl Harbor Day, with not enough fanfare. The Luftwaffe pilot Hans Guido Mutke, with rivets bursting from his Me 262 jets wings, may have accidentally broken the sound barrier over Austria in April 1945. Yeager retired from the Air Force in 1975 and moved to a ranch in Cedar Ridge in Northern California where he continued working as a consultant to the Air Force and Northrop Corp. and became well known to younger generations as a television pitchman for automotive parts and heat pumps. Today, the plane Yeager first broke the sound barrier in, the X-1, hangs inside the air and space museum. It might sound funny, but Ive never owned an airplane in my life. "[57][58] In his autobiography, Dwight details how Yeager's leadership led to discriminatory treatment throughout his training at Edwards Air Force Base. It was a matter of keeping them from falling apart, Yeager said. This was Yeager's last attempt at setting test-flying records. Such was the difficulty of this task that the answer to many of the inherent challenges was along the lines of "Yeager better have paid-up insurance". Chuck Yeager, standing next to the "Glamorous Glennis," the Bell X-1 experimental plane with which he first broke the sound barrier. In 2011, Yeager told NPR that the lack of publicity never much mattered to him. Yeager was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. Flying F-15 planes, he broke the sound barrier again on the 50th and 55th anniversaries of his pioneering flight, and he was a passenger on an F-15 plane in another breaking of the sound barrier to commemorate the 65th anniversary. His flight helmet even cracked the canopy, and a scratchy archive recording from the day preserves Yeager's voice as he wrestles back control of the aircraft: "Oh! Yeager married 45-year-old Victoria Scott DAngelo in 2003. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. His record-breaking flight opened up space, Star Wars, satellites, he told Agence France-Presse in 2007. Retired Air Force Brig. They had four children: Donald, Michael, Sharon and Susan. He was depicted breaking the sound barrier in the opening scene. West Virginia Chuck Yeager is dead at the age of 97. . After serving as head of aerospace safety for the Air Force, he retired as a brigadier general in 1975. In the hours since the announcement broke on social media, fellow aviators, historians, VIPs, and others have weighed in on Yeager's legacy. In recognition of his achievements and the outstanding performance ratings of those units, he was promoted to brigadier general in 1969 and inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973, retiring on March 1, 1975. But once the U.S. entered World War II a few months later, he got his chance. Legendary airman Chuck Yeager the first pilot in history confirmed to break the sound barrier died Monday, his wife announced. Brigadier General Charles Elwood Yeager (/jer/ YAY-gr, February 13, 1923 December 7, 2020) was a United States Air Force officer, flying ace, and record-setting test pilot who in October 1947 became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. Sure, I was apprehensive, he said in 1968. But he was hidden by members of the French underground, made it to neutral Spain by climbing the snowy Pyrenees, carrying a severely wounded flier with him, and returned to his base in England. Steely 'Right Stuff' test pilot Chuck Yeager dies 15 Squadron "Cobras" at Peshawar Airbase, the Squadron's OC Wing Commander Najeeb Khan escorted him to K2 in a pair of F-86Fs after Yeager requested a visit to the second highest mountain on Earth. [11], At the time of his flight training acceptance, he was a crew chief on an AT-11. He returned to combat during the Vietnam War, flying several missions a month in twin-engine B-57 Canberras making bombing and strafing runs over South Vietnam. Oct. 14, 1947, Yeager became the first test pilot to break the sound barrier as he flew the experimental Bell XS-1 (later X-1) rocket plane over Muroc Dry Lake in California. [29] He also expressed bitterness at his treatment in England during World War II, describing the British as "arrogant" and "nasty". In 1947 Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier; and, in hitting Mach 1, he set the US on a path that was to lead to Neil Armstrongs 1969 moon landing. My accomplishments as a test pilot tell more about luck, happenstance and a persons destiny. Without a hitch, he resumed combat, and by the end of the war was credited with 12.5 aerial victories, including five in one day. Yeager broke the sound barrier when he tested the X-1 in October 1947, although. He accomplished the feat in a Bell X-1, a wild, high-flying rocket-propelled orange airplane that he nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis," after his first wife who died in 1990. After World War II, he became a test pilot beginning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. And the X-1 buffeted like a bucking horse as it approached the speed of sound Mach 1 about 700 miles per hour at altitude. My accomplishments as a test pilot tell more about luck, happenstance and a persons destiny. [89] In December 1975, the U.S. Congress awarded Yeager a silver medal "equivalent to a noncombat Medal of Honor for contributing immeasurably to aerospace science by risking his life in piloting the X-1 research airplane faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947". [37], Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, in level flight while piloting the X-1 Glamorous Glennis at Mach 1.05 at an altitude of 45,000ft (13,700m)[38][d] over the Rogers Dry Lake of the Mojave Desert in California. Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The locals in the nearby village of Yoxford, he recalled, resented having 7,000 Yanks descend on them, their pubs and their women, and were rude and nasty.. On the evening of Sunday 12 October 1947, Yeager, a 24-year-old US air force test pilot based at Muroc army air field in California, dined with his wife, Glennis, at Panchos bar and restaurant in the Mojave desert. Chuck Yeager, the most famous test pilot of his generation who was the first to break the sound barrier, and, thanks to Tom Wolfe, came to personify the death-defying aviator who possessed the . Chuck Yeager, a World War II fighter pilot, the first person to break the sound barrier and one of the subjects of Philip Kaufman 's The Right Stuff has died. He was also one of the first American pilots to fly a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, after its pilot, No Kum-sok, defected to South Korea. [33][34] Under the National Security Act of 1947, the USAAF became the United States Air Force (USAF) on September18. [65][76], On March 1, 1975, following assignments in West Germany and Pakistan, Yeager retired from the Air Force at Norton Air Force Base, California. Legendary airman Chuck Yeager dead at 97 - New York Post Gen. Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the World War II fighter pilot ace and quintessential test pilot who showed he had the "right stuff" when in 1947 he became the first person. Gen. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager died Dec. 7. [99], The Civil Air Patrol, the volunteer auxiliary of the USAF, awards the Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager Award to its senior members as part of its Aerospace Education program. Chuck Yeager, 'America's greatest pilot', dies aged 97 - Mail Online [14], Stationed in the United Kingdom at RAF Leiston, Yeager flew P-51 Mustangs in combat with the 363d Fighter Squadron. ", Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies, "The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club", "Famous pilot Yeager re-enacting right stuff 65 years later", "Chuck Yeager, Pioneer of Supersonic Flight, Dies at Age 97", "Chuck Yeager is honored by Tuskegee Airman", "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement", "The Daily Diary of President Gerald R. Ford: December 8, 1976", "Ground-Level Monuments Honor Heroes of the Air", "Harry S. Truman The President's Day, November 2, 1950". On Oct. 12, 1944, leading three fighter squadrons escorting bombers over Bremen, Germany, he downed five German planes, becoming an ace in a day. Throughout his life, he flew more than 360 different types of aircraft over a 70-year period, and continued to fly for two decades after retirement as a consultant pilot for the United States Air Force. In 1941, soon after graduating from high school and shortly before the United States entered World War II, he enlisted in the Army Air Forces, later to become the US Air Force. He was 97 when he passed away. He played "Fred", a bartender at "Pancho's Place", which was most appropriate, as Yeager said, "if all the hours were ever totaled, I reckon I spent more time at her place than in a cockpit over those years". Yeager was also the chairman of Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Young Eagle Program from 1994 to 2004, and was named the program's chairman emeritus. In 2003 Yeager married Victoria DAngelo. He also flew directly under the Kanawha Bridge and West Virginia named it the Chuck E. Yeager Bridge. [96], Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia, is named in his honor. He was 97. [43][44] Yeager was awarded the Mackay Trophy and the Collier Trophy in 1948 for his mach-transcending flight,[45][46] and the Harmon International Trophy in 1954. Assigned to the 357th Fighter Group at Tonopah, Nevada, he initially trained as a fighter pilot, flying Bell P-39 Airacobras (being grounded for seven days for clipping a farmer's tree during a training flight),[13] and shipped overseas with the group on November 23, 1943. Chuck Yeager, who has died aged 97, stands alongside the Wright Brothers and Charles Lindbergh in the history of American aviation. Contact Us. He served, in 1986, on President Ronald Reagans Rogers commission into the space shuttle Challenger tragedy. Huh! The book and movie centered on the daring test pilots of the space program's early days. Battling stormy weather as he took the plane aloft, he analyzed its strengths and weaknesses. There shouldve been a bump in the road, something to let you know that you had just punched a nice, clean hole through the sonic barrier. Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager, a military test pilot who was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound and live to tell about it, died Dec. 7. [a] After serving as an aircraft mechanic, in September 1942, he entered enlisted pilot training and upon graduation was promoted to the rank of flight officer (the World War II Army Air Force version of the Army's warrant officer), later achieving most of his aerial victories as a P-51 Mustang fighter pilot on the Western Front, where he was credited with shooting down 11.5 enemy aircraft (the half credit is from a second pilot assisting him in a single shootdown).

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